Stereotypes and Lecce

I need to do an update while I can. Whoever says that southern Italians are lazy is just making a stupid stereotype. I thought this week would be really slow at work but that hasn’t been case. We’re still plugging away and getting as much done as possible. I think in the US I saw more of a ramp down of work when a long holiday approaches. Along with this point I would like to point out my friend Marco Russo. He’s commented on the blog several times. He has a full time job here with the Italian company and he has another job in a store. When he’s working 2nd shift here (2:00 PM to 10:00 PM) then he works in the store in the morning. On those days he’ll put in over 10 hours easy. Then just last night my neighbor had a problem with the Christmas lights I put up. They weren’t working so I went over to find the problem light, which I did because I'm handy like that. While I was there she was working on the computer and talking to her boss on the phone. It just seems like I know a lot of people that are hard working. Most of the people that have their own small business are working 6 days a week. When I first arrived I tried to go out with a waitress in one of the bars. It just didn’t work because she worked 6 nights a week from 7:30 in the evening until they closed, which on some nights it wasn’t until 3:00 AM. Anyway I guess I’m just trying to make a case against stereotypes. Enough preaching.
Tonight I’m going to Lecce for second time this week. I went Tuesday after work to get the special Olive oil from Olio Claudio. My family and friends have grown attached to their oil, but if I’m such a good customer then why I didn’t know they were closed on Tuesdays? UGHH. I never even imagined that Tuesday would be closing day. I drove down thinking the day they are closed must be Monday or Thursday. That’s much more normal but nooooo I was wrong. Then I called a friend who lives in Lecce to see what he was up to and he was still at work here in Brindisi, which again reflects the point I made above. At this point I’m really regretting this trip to Lecce. I thought maybe I’ll get some photos of big nativity scene in Lecce. Every year they make a big life-sized scene in the remains of a Roman theater in Piazza Sant’Oronzo. And also every year it’s a little different. When I arrived at the theater I found that I forgot to put my memory card back in the camera. AAHHH. I was going to get something out of this trip so I walked all the way back to the car (luckily I had a spare card in my computer bag for work) and then back to get these photos below.

The Whole Scene for 2007! There's orange and olive trees down there. Keep in mind usually it's as bare as parking lot down there. Everything you see has been added just for Christmas.

Close up of the Manger part. Notice that the baby Jesus isn't there yet.

This is what they had two years ago.

More Christmasy

I have a tree like I mentioned so how could things get more Christmasy. Well it would take a little help from Mother Nature and we got it. For the first time I saw snow in Brindisi.This photo below is from Friday night.

It only lasted about 10 minutes but Maurizio at the pizzeria said he hadn't seen anything like this in at least 6 years so this appears to be our "once in a decade snow". I heard about this thing when I first moved here and now I've ived through it. I walked into the center of town with my camera ready. I was hoping the snow would start falling again. I sat down and took the first picture in this post. This Christmas tree in the center of town and I thought it woud be great to have a photo of it with snow in air but it didn't happen. It was frickin' cold and not many people were out (as you can see). I gave up and went home to get something warm to eat. We had on and off flurries all night so I went to bed dreaming of a white blanket of fresh snow greeting me in the morning. I didn't get a blanket of snow but I did see this Saturday morning at 9:30 AM



I was lucky to get this because if I would have slept to 11 or 11:30 the snow would have been completely gone. It never did "stick". I saw a few kids making snowballs from the snow on cars. It was hilarious because it seemed like good fun but most of cars were filthy so the snowballs were dirty brown and they quickly realized this wasn't a good mix with their nice jackets.

A TREE!!!

I got a tree today and I'm so bubbling with Christmas spirit I had to post again today. It was a complete surprise because as I was coming in the building after work I saw my neighbor putting her tree up. I knocked on her door to applaud her holiday spirit and more importantly to make fun of her because she still doesn't have the required white lights on her balcony. I'm pretty sure from the looks of it that you are only allowed to have white lights in my building. To this joke I was greeted by two strings of white lights and spent the next half an hour zip tying them to her balcony. She was impressed (but not surprised) that I had a stash of zip tyes that were perfect for the occasion. We were talking as I worked and naturally I started to whine about how I didn't have a tree. She immediately offered her old little one. So now I have the display you see in the photo. The tree is only about 1.5 feet tall but it's the spirit that counts. Do you see the little clay manager scene under the tree? And I have Santa. I need to get some ornaments or I could use cat toys because I have feeling that's what anything I put on that tree will become!

Brindisi=Cheers

You wanna be where everyone knows your name… Actually Brindisi does mean Cheers in Italian, sort of... Anyway, the story will explain the title. But first I’m sorry about the photo above. It was the best I could do given the situation.
I looked out my window Saturday night and I saw this Ape in front of the building with a Christmas tree. I immediately thought that my sister would love this. I’m still working on bringing an Ape home for Christmas, sis. The first thing I think to do is grab my camera and race out the door because I don’t know how long it will be there. As I bound down the stairs and I hear voices in the stairwell that are getting louder as go down and sure enough I passed the Christmas tree delivery guy on the second floor. Crap, I can tell from the chitchat, as I sneak by, that he’s done and on his way down too. I’m walking out the building and thinking, “Now where can I rest the camera to get the photo” but a strange thing happens. I start getting wet! Crap it’s raining. I didn’t even notice that. I retreated back to the cover of the building. So it’s raining, the guy’s coming, and I really have no way or time to get the photo like I want. No time to think, I just decide to do the best I can and see what I can do with it on the computer.
By now the guy is coming out of the building so I thought I should ask before taking a photo. We went through the usual stuff about me being a foreigner etc, etc. Then he said, “I know you. You’re the American that came in to buy flowers once. I’m from the florist next to the pharmacy.” Now that’s like saying the gas station next to the McDonalds in the USA. It doesn’t give you ANY idea where he’s talking about. Then I remembered where he meant. Yeah, yeah, he’s not the guy that’s usually there but his assistant and there was one day when the owner or head guy wasn’t there and this guy was manning the store. He wasn’t allowed to sell anything so I had to wait until the other guy returned. That was months ago. How can Italians have such good memories about meeting me? Anyway he said, “Yes, yes get a photo to send back to America” So we ran out into the rain and I snapped a few photos as best I could. He said he really needed to get this last delivery done and I said don’t stay for me. And so he putted off into the rainy night with one last tree to deliver. So it stands that this little town can still amaze me.
It also reminds me. That’s the place where I bought my lemon tree. I’m happy to report that it didn’t die in August like I thought. In fact, it has a ton of blooms that are just getting ready to open. If half of these turn into lemons then I’ll be having homemade limoncello next year. Because we all know that when life gives you lemons, make limoncello. Stay tuned.


This isn't my lemon tree but I hope it will be like this some day.

Buon Natale!!

Merry Christmas!! What a lead up to Christmas I've had. I save that for a later date though because all is good now and I hope everyone else out there is having a joyful holiday. Where ever you are.